Sprint intervals can increase post-exercise kcal burn

10-10-12: In the quest to find the "time" to exercise, a lot of attention has been focused on HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training. This is where you do very high intensity for a short period of time, interspersed with low intensity time. The research shows that you can get cardio benefits in less time doing it this way, and this is the first study to show if you keep burning more kcals AFTER you're done the exercise.

In this study they did five 30-sec sprints on a stationary bike with 4 minutes of easy pedaling in between. Test subjects burned an extra 200 kcals per day from this kind of workout. More studies need to be done to see if this would translate to more weight loss and all, but it does look promising. Also, exercising at this high of a level usually is very difficult to do on your own, and seems to benefit from a coach pushing you.

You can read more about the study here at this link. They are presenting their findings in a poster session entitled, “A Single Session of Sprint Interval Training Increases Total Daily Energy Expenditure,”  at The Integrative Biology of Exercise VI meeting being held October 10-13 at the Westin Westminster Hotel in Westminster, CO.